POLITICAL NOTES

Determined to curb the loss of over 500,000 barrels per day of crude oil to illegal bunkering, the federal government recently renewed a multi-million dollar pipeline surveillance contract to a former militant leader and Commander of the defunct Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), Government Ekpemupolo, better known as Tompolo.


Recall that the contract, which was first awarded by President Goodluck Jonathan when Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke was the Minister of Petroleum, was immediately stopped when President Muhammadu Buhari first came to power in 2015. As if that was not enough, Tompolo was swiftly declared.

The former MEND commander, known for his knowledge of the creeks, is meant to monitor and oversee other surveillance contracts, contractors and their activities in the entire Niger Delta.

Before the cancellation of the contract, the arrangements he put in place had tackled illegal bunkering and increased Nigeria’s production to over two million barrels per day.

With the slump in Nigeria’s current production to just a little over 1million barrels per day, the federal government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited agreed to engage Tompolo to end illegal bunkering, illegal refining and other forms of oil theft in the Niger Delta communities. A source close to Tompolo said the current deal is worth a whopping over N4billion monthly.

While many may not see anything wrong with the contract, others see it as passing a vote-of-no confidence not just on the entire Armed Forces of Nigeria but the Nigerian Navy whose duty it is protect and secure the Nigerian waterways and the infrastructure therein.

They are wondering why the country would have a Navy and be awarding contract worth N4billion monthly to militants. It is a big shame indeed.

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The bitter truth is that our security outfits have become complicit in this whole thing.
Speaking from firsthand knowledge.

We have not heard anything about the ship that smuggled crude oil out of Nigeria recently.